KEVYNWEBER PROOF SILVER R2 SET
2016 THE DOLOS


Obverse
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Reverse
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Coin Details

  

Set Details
Origin/Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Design Description:
Item Description: S2R 2016 S.africa THE DOLOS
Grade: NGC PF 70 ULTRA CAMEO
Owner: KEVYNWEBER
 
Winning Set: KEVYNWEBER PROOF SILVER R2 SET
Date Added: 11/21/2017
Research: See NGC's Census Report for this Coin

Owner's Description

The man generally given most of the credit for inventing the dolos was a harbour engineer at the Port of East London named Eric Merrifield who served at the Eastern Cape port as the chief engineer from 1961-1976. Yet the facts are somewhat different in that Merrifield had little right to such a claim, other than that he was in charge of the engineering office at the time and had signing power for its development. One day in 1963 Merrifield entered into a discussion with his draughtsman about designing a structure made from concrete that would be capable of protecting the East London Harbour breakwater from the battering waves.

The draughtsman, 28-year old Aubrey Kruger, was a modest, quiet local man who rode to work every day on a red Vespa scooter from his home in Cambridge, one of East London’s suburbs. It was usual in those days at East London for people to return home at lunchtime each day and so, when Aubrey Kruger returned home by scooter that day the first thing he did was to commandeer his wife Daphne’s broomstick, from which he cut three pieces of wood which he nailed together in the shape of an H’ with one twisted leg.

Not long before he died (July 19 2016), his (Krugers) family was able to show him the newly minted sterling silver coins of a R2 crown and a 2½ cent “tickey” from the South African Mint in its South African Invention’s theme, imprinted with the geometric shape of the dolos, which commemorated his involvement in the invention.

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